Hypnosis is Not an It
I have been practising hypnosis since 1989 and one thing that never fails to frustrate me is the “it factor”. I will get clients calling asking if “it works?” Or in some cases clients who have been to other therapists saying that when it came to hypnosis “it didn’t work”. I do my best to explain to clients that hypnosis is not an it or an entity in and of itself it is a process. Milton Erickson described is as an interactional outcome, which in layman’s terms means that both client and hypnotherapist need to do their jobs if therapeutic change is to happen.
This is a process issue, not a technique issue. I frustrates me to see that there are practitioners, who are considered senior in the field who do not understand this. I have written before about the importance of the therapeutic relationship, yet is still seems that some in our profession want to look at hypnosis as a it rather than a tool to a greater therapeutic approach.
Hypnosis is not magic, it is not all powerful, it is not an it. In the hands of a skilled practitioner hypnosis can assist greatly in rapid therapeutic change.
